Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Wine Tasting: Pure Michigan Style

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Hi guys. Are you starting to think that I work for the Michigan Board of Tourism? I don't, I promise. But I just have to share Michigan wine country with you.

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The first weekend of October my Mom, sister, and I took a little trip up North to the Traverse City area. Traverse City is located at the base of two peninsulas (Old Mission & Leelenau) and is a beautiful part of the state. Wineries are plentiful on the two peninsulas.

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See all those red spots? All wineries. Now that's a lot of wine tasting!

.{ A little fun fact: Mario Batali spends the Summer in Northport. And he's not even from Michigan! If it's good enough for him it must be good, right?).

.Traverse City is about a 2-1/2 hour drive from where we live in Grand Rapids. The sun was shining and it was a great day for a drive. Our first stop was along side of the road on the Leelanau Peninsula for a few photos. The water is so blue is almost looks like the Caribbean..

.The Fall colors were starting and were so beautiful..

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.For this trip we decided to hit the wineries on the Leelanau Peninsula. There are so many we didn't even get to all of them..First stop of the day...Leelanau Cellars..

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.I could look out these windows all day long. View is of Grand Traverse Bay..

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.After we finished tasting, we ate lunch next door at Knot Just A Bar. We all had the Lake Perch Sandwich. Yum..Had to stop for this photo.:.

.Next up: Circa Estate Winery..

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.Next we drove over to the other side of the peninsula and made a stop in Leland at Verterra Winery..

.On to one of our favorites - L Mawby. Mawby only makes sparkling wine and boy, they are delicious..

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.Love the name of this one:.

.Mawby is my sister's favorite, so she stocked up..

.Last stop of the day is another favorite, Willow Vineyard. Not only is the wine delicious, but the views are stunning..

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.And the winery is so pretty:.

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We had dinner that night on the Old Mission Peninsula at The Jolly Pumpkin. The next morning we took a drive over to Sleeping Bear Dunes. I was going to include that in this post but I have too many photos. I'll have to save that for a separate post!

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If you are interested in Wine Tasting in Northern Michigan, here are a few great resources:

I'm another girl who had NO idea there were so many wineries in MI! We live in CA and love wine tasting here, but it looks like we may have to expand our horizons soon! Thanks so much for sharing - each photo is stunning.

I really enjoyed this post. My in-laws had a vacation home outside of Traverse City that we spent many summers visiting. My husband and I are headed to the area the first weekend in November for a wine tasting weekend. We visited many of the same wineries you highlighted here last year and stayed at Chateau Chantal, a beautiful place for a weekend stay.

I love Northern Michigan! My second cousins live across the road from Circa and my favorite winery is 45, right down the road. We had a house in Northport a couple summers ago. I swore I saw Mario at the grocery store. You just confirmed it!

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